Rudy Rucker's "Apricot Lane" (short story, dystopia, humor, free)

Crazy future where not only is every person always connected to the network directly via a brain link, but so is every inanimate object. In fact, inanimate objects get a certain computer intelligence. And everything is a service: you turn a doorknob to enter a room, a small micropayment is automatically deducted; you walk on a pavement, a micropayment is deducted; you look at a picture & like it, a payment is deducted; don't have money to pay & dare to walk on the street, the system will be at your throat!

It's silly & funny at the same time. Told from the point of view of a broke programmer of this networked world.

Caution: It will likely work only if you have at least a few years of sf reading behind. I know I would have hated it when I was starting.

Fact sheet.

First published: "An Aura of Familiarity: Visions from the Coming Age of Networked Matter" (anthology, 2013).
Download full text from publisher's site. [via SF Signal]
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Rudy Rucker.

Rudy Rucker & Bruce Sterling's "Loco" (short story, weird physics, free)

Look this up only if you're into the really weird - with a lot of jargon. The only redeeming part I saw here, & the reason I'm writing this post, is a kind of robot I've not seen in fiction before - "folded" out of special flexible sheet material, & capable of shape shifting (automatic re-folding) based on application.

Fact sheet.

First published: Tor.com, 20 June 2012.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: C.
Related: Stories of Rudy Rucker, Bruce Sterling.

Rudy Rucker's "Chu and the Nants" (short story, science fiction)

Based on first half of the story that is available online, it sounds like a jargon filled geeky utopia. Self-replicating nanobots called Nants are let loose on Mars - convert the whole planet into a sort of big AI. And they are programmed to display ads & kind of banish night from all over the world - how the hell is anyone able to see ads clearly on Martian disk from earth is beyond me. This half story indicates the big AI is learning to have it's own agenda, & will soon be out of control of humans. Second half will presumably describe its wonders.

Collected in.

1. David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (Ed)'s "Year's Best SF 12" (2007).
   

Fact sheet.

First published: Asimov's, June 2006.
Rating: C

Note: Why is this post so short?